Springtime (and I feel human again)

I wasn't ever going to blog about how the last post on here was about Christmas, or the fact I've felt like a little shell of myself, the last few months but I've realised I don't care to post content that everyone else wants to see... 

It's funny how winter affects me so much; after the rush towards Christmas, I feel like I just slip further into a hole that is hard to climb back out of. It's not every year it happens, but when it does it catches me so by surprise it knocks the wind out of me - in January I kept thinking I was fighting it off, that I was getting to the gym and being sociable and doing all those things I was taught to do to keep me going, before realising I was finding no joy in them and I ground to a halt.

It's not until the first warm day of spring that I start to feel like me again. Only when the sunlight begins to feel warm again, and I roll my window down on the drive home from work, and I sit outside in my garden on the weekends to eat my lunch and it's okay, cause everything starts to feel okay again. Today felt okay, for the first time in a while. I woke up this morning after a lovely evening with a new friend, I have some things to look forward to, I feel like I'm more solid in my skin and things feel good. This afternoon I sat and watched the blue tits in the garden, did some knitting and drank my coffee with full fat milk, to feel indulgent.

So I guess I'll just sit tight until summer...

Follow

the royal landscape: the saville garden

These photos seem a world away now after the few weeks of bad weather we've had here - it fully feels like autumn here... I took these photos on one of my first outings a few weeks after healing up from my operation, my mum and I took a short walk around the lovely flowered gardens and a leisurely pace, and taking lunch in the cafe afterwards. Of course, I took a few snaps...

Since I last visited, they planted up a beautiful selection of wild-flowers, which had the most stunning cornflowers (which I've decided are one of my absolute favourite flowers, they grew like a weed all over the allotment and I used to pick them in copious amounts and bring them home to sit on the windowsill in little jam jars)... I've decided that if I ever were to have a garden of my own, I would plant only wildflowers as they attract a swarm of bees and their colour makes me so happy. 

They had quite a few of the late summer flowers in bloom when we went along - with a lot of hydrangea's (which could be a close contender for my favourite flower - particularly in this beautiful blue hue). The Saville Garden is part of the The Royal Landscape (which I've posted about many times) as it's a place filled with so many memories for me and  love spending time there - particularly of wandering around collecting fallen hydrangeas and rhododendrons as a child and bringing them home to press between books... 

Follow

Bloggers, you need to stop buying peonies...

I have oft mocked my own breed but we bloggers are an odd bunch - we will find something that we like and we used it to death - be that a product, a prop, a saying, a style... I am also guilty of the the flat lay, the soft focus, the aerial shots of food on a table or coffee in a cafe, but I feel I need to address the elephant in the room: a peony.

Guys, peonies are beautiful flowers - I know. Their time in season is brief, only a few months in the summer and you want to make the most of that - I understand. However, there comes a time when you must break the habit. That time is probably the end of the summer, when they're no longer available...

I know that until that point, you want to make the most of these beautiful, tissue paper like blooms, with their marbled effect leaves, that take so long to open up, it seems like they never will: however, bloggers, you need to stop.

You need to stop artfully scattering them across your bed linen, your marble trays, your hard wood floors.

You need to stop using them in every single photograph, every Instagram, every header and footer on your blog.

You need to stop scattering the petals across your flat lays of spring-makeup picks, of seasonal summer cocktails, and blogger tips and tricks photographs.

You need to stop angling them in the background of every shot.

You need to stop buying out the entire amount in Waitrose, Marks and Spencers, Aldi and garden centres - other people might like a bunch too...

I love you guys and I love peonies just as much as you do (hell, I bought a plant for my garden last week) however I think this is a much needed public service announcement - hell, I need to follow some of these rules myself. Spare a thought for all those other flowers long forgotten by bloggers: tulips, roses, lilies, hydrangeas, freesias, daisies and gypsophila... 

Follow



Also, because incase it is mentioned: I wrote this long before this post, but it is definitely in a similar vein! Please don't take this too seriously... I'm mocking myself, too. ;) 

ode to an english summer

In the winter I have visions of an English summer, of prancing around in sun-dresses and Birkenstocks, drinking Pimms, and tossing my hair back without a care in the world. But the reality is a humidity that makes you look like lion, hippy sandals that rub, being so sweaty on the train it should be illegal, and I forget that I don't even like Pimms. It's like a crappier sangria.

Sometimes the humidity will break, though, and you get those really excellent, snatched summer moments, when you can smell flowers in the evening and listen to the red kites calling above, whilst drinking chilled white wine in the garden and you feel all pleasantly tired from a long walk somewhere, and the tops of your shoulders and your nose are just a bit too pink but you know it will fade to a soft brown, taking the edge off your year round paleness.

This is how I spent Saturday afternoon - the garden table broke so I just stretched out on the lawn with a bowl of sushi to pick at - my favourite magazine and a glass of iced tea (which turned into white wine as the sun set). The rose-bush in my parents garden is in full swing - I'm trying to persuade my dad he needs a peony bush - it began to feel like a good English summer, not a smidgen of humidity could be felt.

roses are red, cornflowers are blue

There is a huge bush (maybe, not sure if it constitutes a bush or not) of cornflowers growing at the allotment, they're such an amazing colour, I couldn't wait to share them with you all. Next time I must cut them with longer stems, because they're a little short for this vase.

official blogger - achievement unlocked

Am I officially a blogger now? Slightly out of focus pink-peonies in a mason-esque jar. Ahhh, it makes me cringe to think about, haha. I just snapped these pictures because they finally opened after like four days, and thought they were cute - and as all the beauty blogs I read seem to have them artfully arranged in the background of their all-white-everything bedrooms, with their high-end YSL lipsticks artfully scattered in-front of their iMac's, I thought I'd share them here, presented with commentary.

I got these peonies super cheap at work the other day, I can't remember what they were reduced to, but they were only like £2-3 which is the most I pretty much ever pay for fresh flowers (cheapskate, I know, but I usually cut some from the garden or allotment). I work in a supermarket that has a good flower selection so I can sometimes pick up some bargains at the end of my shift. Anddd I shoved them in this old Douwe Eggberts coffee jar because it was the only thing I could find that wasn't being used.  

So there we go. Official Blogger achievement unlocked. And promptly revoked due to sarcasm.